Toto la Momposina
Toto  la Momposina's traditional Colombian music, born from the land and from the heart, has no borders.  Her universal music is of, for and by the people, stirring the public around the world regardless of nationality or age

On December 9, 2006, la Momposina will bring her dazzling voice and troupe of musicians and dancers to San Francisco in celebration of the Encuentro del Canto Popular's Silver Anniversary concert.

On October 28, la Momposina will be honored at the 2006 WOMEX (World Music Expo), for her extraordinary excellence, and the social importance and the cultural impact of her music across the world. According to UNESCO, WOMEX is the most important professional international organization for world music. WOMEX's international fair brings together professionals of world folk music from around the globe.

La Momposina was born in the village of Talaigua, on the island of Mompos, located on the Magdalena River near Colombia's northern coast. In many ways, her destiny was set when she was born into a family with a musical legacy spanning four generations.  As a teenager, she came under the tutelage of Ramona Ruiz, a highly skilled local peasant singer who trained her in traditional song and music.

Soon la Momposina was traveling up and down the Colombian coast, finding her voice and learning music and dance from the various villages. In 1968, she formed her own band and her reputation grew beyond the small hamlets. By the '70s, she was touring internationally.

In 1982, renowned Colombian writer, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, invited la Momposina to accompany him and perform at the ceremony in Stockholm where he received the Nobel Prize in Literature.

La Momposina soon moved to Europe where she spent four years in Paris studying the history of dance at the Sorbonne and recorded her first album, Toto La Momposina Y Sus Tambores in 1985.

She returned to Latin America in 1987, reconnecting with her Colombian roots and traveling to Cuba to study music. In 1991, la Momposina was invited to join Peter Gabriel's WOMAD world tour and subsequently recorded a second album for Gabriel's Real World label. La Candela Viva was released in 1993 to much acclaim. The follow-up album, Carmelina, appeared in Europe in 1996.

La Momoposina continues to perform around the world, now incorporating her grandchildren, as well as her children, into her large performing troupe. Her musicians incorporate indigenous and African instruments including the gaita, a Colombian flute, and traditional drums in their performances.

Her fourth album, Pacanto, was released in 2000 and nominated for the 2002 Latin Grammy Award for Best Traditional Tropical Album.

With a career of more than 38 years, and a voice known around the world, la Momoposina's songs continue to tell the stories of the Colombian people's traditions and history.

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Performance: Friday, December 9
Websites:

http://www.totolamomposina.com/

WOMEX announces 2006 winner

Interview with Totó la Momposina

Born in San Francisco, California, in 1955, percussionist John Santos was raised in the Puerto Rican and Cape Verdean traditions of his family, surrounded by music. The fertile musical environment of the San Francisco Bay Area shaped his career in a unique way.

Santos is a major exponent of Afro-Latin music through innovative use of traditional forms and instruments with contemporary music. He's been a prolific performer, composer, teacher, writer, radio programmer, and record/event producer for over 30 years, having worked with acknowledged masters such as Cachao, Dizzy Gillespie, Tito Puente, Bebo Valdes, Max Roach, Eddie Palmieri, Patato Valdes, Francisco Aguabella, Steve Turre, McCoy Tyner, Batacumbele, Omar Sosa, and Carlos Santana. He is founder (1985) and director of the internationally renowned, Grammy-nominated Machete Ensemble.

Mr. Santos is a member of the Latin Jazz Advisory Committee of the Smithsonian. The San Francisco Bay Area community in which he still lives and works has presented him with numerous awards and honors for artistic excellence and social dedication.

Holding down the core of the quintet, percussionist Orestes Vilato is widely and respectfully known as living legend in the world of Latin jazz and salsa. He has participated in numerous Grammy award-winning and nominated projects. His resume is a line up of Latin music royalty including Cachao, Belisario Lopez, Fajardo, Bobby Hutcherson, Ray Barretto, The Fania All Stars, Johnny Pacheco, Ismael Quintana, Tipica 73 and others. Orestes has collaborated with Santos since the early 1980s.

Bassist Saul Sierra graduated from the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area around 1998. He is currently the most sought after bassist in the local Latin jazz and salsa scene, having added his rock-solid rhythmic and harmonic foundation to recordings and performances with Jackeline Rago, Fito Reinoso, Charanson, Maria Marquez, Jesus Diaz, and John Santos and the Machete Ensemble among many others. Saul is also a founding member of Vision Latina.

Dynamic pianist, Marco Diaz, is also among the busiest musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area. His understanding of Jazz and Latin idioms and how they work together defies his age. He is also a founding member of Vision Latina and an excellent trumpet player.

Exciting flautist, John Calloway, is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and educator active in the vibrant San Francisco music scene since the mid 1970s and teaching in the public school district since the late 1980s. He is a founding member of John Santos' Machete Ensemble (1985), and has written and arranged for countless groups in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York. In 2002, he released Diaspora, his first CD as a band leader. He has performed with Batachanga, Beny Velarde, Charanson, Cachao, Conjunto Libre, Charanga 76, Rey Reyes, and Charlie Rodriguez.

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Performance: Friday, December 9
Website:

www.johnsantos.com

www.johncalloway.com

www.salsasight.com/OrestesVilatoInterview.html

The album's music takes the listener on a fusion voyage across the Caribbean and Latin America featuring rocking surf-cumbia, swinging-soca, reggae-son and guajira-boogaloo to free-jazz.

The five-member group is composed of guitarist Camilo Landau who played with Carlos Santana when he was just 16 years old and more recently graced the stage with Quetzal, Dr. Loco's Rockin' Jalapeno Band, LatiDo, and Santero.  Landau studied guitar in Cuba and Nicaragua. While attending the University of California, Santa Cruz, he started Carne Cruda, and played in the UCSC Jazz Ensembles with trumpeter Ray Brown.

Charlie Gurke hails from Oakland California and began playing the alto saxophone in middle school but soon switched to the baritone sax. He studied Jazz at The New School in New York, and then returned to the Bay Area to join Carne Cruda where he plays the baritone saxophone and the melodica, also holds courts with other San Francisco groups including Dr. Loco's Rockin' Jalapeno Band, Vision Latina, Orchesta Sensual, and the Space Invaders Saxophone Quartet.

Luke Kirley plays the tuba and the trombone.  He started his music studies at Sir Francis Drake High School and studied jazz with Ray Brown during his college years.  Luke also performs with salsa bands Avance Orquestra, La Verdad, and Tito y su Son. 

The group's bassist is Berkeley-native Ayla Davila who also plays the clarinet.  As a child, she was member of the well-known group Son Jarocho Los Cenzontles, where she played the jarana and the requinto. 

David Florez, in charge of percussions and the drums, has played with great musicians like Orestes Vilato, Pete Escovedo and John Santos.

Hiva Swanhuyser of Metro Santa Cruz wrote "Carne Cruda means raw meat. But the only thing raw will be your feet from dancing to these infectious rhythms."

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Performance: Friday, December 9
Website: www.carnecruda.com

Juan Fuentes

Juan Fuentes’ collaboration with Acción Latina began in the early 1970s when he joined the El Tecolote staff, contributing artwork and helping to layout the newspaper.

Raised in the farm labor camps of Monterey and Santa Cruz counties, Fuentes was the first in his family to attend a university. He entered San Francisco State through the newly established Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), which had been won, along with the College of Ethnic Studies, through the Third World Student Strike.

At SF State, Fuentes took his first art class and, thus, began his creative journey. In the 1970s Fuentes was mentored by Rupert Garcia, Malaquias Montoya, and Ralph Maradiaga. These legends in the Chicano poster movement influenced Fuentes’ commitment to art that served the community within a global political context. To this day, Fuentes has held firm to that commitment. His images address the social, economic and cultural dynamics of the day and, in doing so, serve to encourage an important public dialogue.

Fuentes’ collaboration with Acción Latina has continued through his artwork for the Encuentro del Canto Popular posters, beginning with the first concert in 1982. His image for that first poster has become the Encuentro logo.

Fuentes’ artwork has graced the Encuentro posters for most of the 25 years.

Featured Encuentro Artwork Gallery:

http://www.accionlatina/encuentro/2006poster_gallery.html